It's the middle of the night and everyone is sound asleep. There's shouting and heavy footfalls in the hallway and the bedroom door bursts open. Strangers are taking pajama-clad children from their beds before they can even reach for their favourite teddy bear or blanket and whisking them off in cars to deliver them to the home of a stranger.
From the program It's My Very Own comes Bags of Love, which meets the immediate needs of displaced children in Northern B.C.
It's traumatic enough when children are removed from their homes by child protective services but it's often in the middle of the night, leaving the children with only the clothes they are wearing and nothing else.
"We need to do something about this," said local organizer Irena Lipovszky. "We need to do something to touch these children's hearts. This is a really traumatic time for them. The children are angry, upset, screaming, yelling, crying. The Bags of Love are given so that the children know they are loved and cared for and that's what this is all about."
The local chapter of It's My Very Own is a faith-based non-profit organization through the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Ralph Sommerville, who has since passed away, started the program in Prince George in 2008.
The Bags of Love contain grooming items, pajamas and slippers, books, stuffed animals, educational toys, and a handmade quilt at the bottom of the bag.
The program started in Kentucky in 2006 at a Seventh-day Adventist Church. Today the program is in nine countries.
Lipovszky said when children are taken from their homes that are crack houses, for example, their personal items are considered contaminated with the illegal substance.
When the children are taken from their homes, they are placed in temporary foster care.
"The first thing they do is remove their clothes and shower and then they are given new clothes, and the child is completely isolated," said Lipovszky.
The Bags of Love are distributed through the Ministry of Children and Family Development and 796 bags have been received by children in the area since the local program started and there are another 60 on the shelf, ready to go when needed, she added. Prince George, Quesnel, Vanderhoof, McBride, Mackenzie, Fort St. James, and Burns Lake have been equipped with bags and a few have even gone into Smithers and Terrace, said Lipovszky.
"The fact that these children are being torn from their home and remember - no matter how bad things are, that is their home. They love their parents and through a situation that's not of their own making it's something that's happening to them - they have no control," said Lipovszky. "And the idea is to be able to give them something that they have control over - that's theirs. So this is given to them and it stays with them."
All the Bags of Love are age appropriate, divided between boys and girls in five different age categories from infants to 17 years old.
"At the top of every bag there's a large stuffie they can cuddle, hug, squeeze, tell their plight to, get angry at - whatever they want, whatever they need - that stuffie is just for them," said
Lipovszky.
Donations of all kinds are needed and accepted including volunteers willing to help, cash, fabric to make the bags and quilts, grooming items like shampoo, toothbrushes, and toothpaste, and other things like activity kits, toy trucks and cars, journals for the older children, and even diapers for the wee ones.
To donate or for more information e-mail [email protected] or call 250-564-8967.
